Explosives play a large role in many drilling, excavating, mining, oilfields and demolition operations. However, such activities often take place far from any developed infrastructure of roads or power utilities. In remote areas there is usually very limited infrastructure to support such activities. Nevertheless, in such situations it is necessary to transport and apply the necessary explosives where needed quickly and with unimpeded mobility.
A wide variety of explosive materials are available in bulk form on the commercial and military markets, and these come in all forms including liquids, gels, slurries, granulated particulate, crystalline powder and cast or pressed solids. One method of employing explosives is to bore a hole or series of holes in the object or material to be moved or destroyed and insert the explosive into the hole. The explosive can then be detonated to achieve the objective. Where multiple boreholes are used the timing and power of the explosive charges can be carefully manipulated to control the shape, area and result of the applied force. This is often done in surface mining operations to remove rock overburden and in structural demolition to control the rate and direction of the fall of the structure.
In one example, liquid and slurry explosives, or granulated products are among the easiest to insert into a borehole, and are effective as long as the borehole is drilled down into non porous or fractured rock. Unfortunately, where holes are drilled horizontally or vertically up and/or into porous and fractured surfaces they cannot contain the explosive and control of the charge is difficult. Solid explosives, often in stick or shaped form, may be inserted into boreholes in most any direction or material, but are difficult to insert deeply or into irregularly shaped openings.
Existing systems require considerable equipment and machinery and are imprecise in terms of the quantity of explosive material inserted into the hole. What is needed is a more portable, lightweight and safe material dispenser adapted to manipulate or extrude materials including explosive material.